A managed network, such as an enterprise private network (EPN), may contain a large number of entities distributed across the network. These entities include, for example, nodes, endpoints, machines, virtual machines, containers (an instance of container-based virtualization), and applications. In addition to being different types, these entities may be grouped in different departments, located in different geographical locations, and/or serve different functions.
An expansive or thorough understanding of the network can be critical for network management tasks such as anomaly detection (e.g., network attacks and misconfiguration), network security (e.g., preventing network breaches and reducing network vulnerabilities), asset management (e.g., monitoring, capacity planning, consolidation, migration, and continuity planning), and compliance (e.g. conformance with governmental regulations, industry standards, and corporate policies). Traditional approaches for managing large networks require comprehensive knowledge on the part of highly specialized human operators because of the complexities of the interrelationships among the entities.